“This is a bad hack”: PS5 players believe PSN could have been hacked after over 9 hours of maintenance downtime

The PlayStation Network (PSN) went into maintenance on February 7, 2025, so the services associated with it were supposed to inaccessible for a couple of minutes. This is a standard pratice initiated at regular intervals. However, it seems like this maintenance is anything but normal. This is because the servers have been down for over nine hours now.

This has been a frustrating experience for users in the US since their Friday night (February 7, 2024) has been completely ruined. This has led to some fans speculating about whether the delay in getting the servers up and running again could be due to a cyberattack.

"This is a bad hack."

@TheSammoooShow5 took to X, warning users that the PSN outage could be the result of a cyberattack and that users should change their passwords "IMMEDIATELY."

Another X user, @iUmairKamal, believes this is 100% a hack and is worried that Sony Interactive Entertainment could be trying to cover it up.

Unfortunately, we don't know how accurate this notion might be. The official PlayStation account on X did confirm the PSN outage but didn't mention the reason behind it. In fact, PlayStation's silence certainly fuels the theory of a cyberattack.

For those unaware, there was a massive PSN outage in 2011, which was a direct result of a cyberattack that prompted Sony to take down the network servers. That outage lasted a total of 23 days. As of this writing, PSN has already been down for nine hours. Popular X profile @DramaAlert also mentioned that fans are dreading the possibility of another 2011-like cyberattack.

X user @GlockMcPew fears the same and mentioned they could be getting an Xbox if the cyberattack rumors end up true. This user also hinted that once they go the Xbox route, they are never coming back to PlayStation.

Another user had a much more positive outlook and asked everyone to calm down. They mention that just because PSN is down doesn't mean there's involvement of hackers. There are no actual reports of a cyberattack, so one shouldn't assume that to be the case.

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When did the PlayStation Network (PSN) servers go down?

PlayStation Network status page (Image via Sony)

According to the official PSN Status page, the servers went down at exactly 4 PM PT on February 7, 2025. Nine hours later, the PlayStation Network servers are still down, and there is nothing to suggest they could be coming back online anytime soon.